NAMA FORAY

The 2013 NAMA foray will be held October 24–27 in Arkansas in the Ozark Mountain Range, hosted by the Arkansas Mycological Society.

There's an old folk saying about the Ozark Mountains: "It's not that the mountains are so high, it's just that the valleys are so deep." This is true because the Ozark Mountains are a heavily eroded plateau, pushed up eons ago and carved out by hundreds of streams over thousands of years. This region has been recognized as a geologically, physiographically, ecologically, and culturally distinct area of North America for a lengthy period of time. In conjunction with the Ouachita Mountain region to the south, the Ozarks comprise the only significant highland in the central area of North America, and the only notable topographic relief between the Appalachians and the Rocky mountains.

2013 Mycologists and PresentersTo see bios and photos of our 2013 mycologists and presenters, click here...

The Ozark Mountain region is characterized by a diversity of terrestrial, aquatic, and karst habitats, ranging from extensive glades and tall grass prairies to both coniferous and deciduous woodlands as well as cypress swamps, fens, sinkholes, sloughs, and a plethora of clear-flowing streams and rivers fed by an abundance of springs, including some of the largest freshwater springs in North America.

The Ozarks encompass 13.7 million hectares (34.3 million acres) and occur within areas of five states, with the majority of the region occurring within Missouri (67%) and Arkansas (24%) and smaller portions in Oklahoma (17%), Illinois (2%) and Kansas (0.1%). The Ozarks span a maximum of 270 miles (450 km) of north/south extent, and a maximum east/west extent of 340 miles (540 km).

The prevailing tree community through most of the Ozarks consists of a variable deciduous wooded upland growing on leached acidic soils with abundant chert residue. Such woodlands are dominated by various species of oaks, such as white oak (Quercus alba), scarlet oak (Q. coccinea), blackjack oak (Q. marilandica), post oak (Q. stellata), and Eastern black oak (Q. velutina). Associated with these oaks is an assortment of hickories such as pignut hickory (Carya glabra), black hickory (C. texana) and mockernut hickory (C. tomentose), as well as a diversity of other trees, notably flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and black gum (Nyssa sylvatica).

Although books and articles have been written about much of the biota that occurs within this region, there has not been any extensive inventory of macrofungi in this area. So the potential for finding interesting and unusual mushrooms during the course of this foray is indeed great. We plan to collect macrofungi in several areas of the forests in the Southern Ozark Mountain range as well as at least one area within the Buffalo River National Park.

The Shepard of the Ozarks Conference Center will serve as the location for the 2013 NAMA foray. This location will allow us easy access to the southern perimeter of the Ozark Mountain Range. Lodging will be provided in nine on-site lodges. The majority of these lodges are equipped with full kitchen appliances. Dining, mushroom identification and mushroom display will all be done in one large building, the Buffalo Center.

Shepard of the Ozarks also provides some on site activities that non-mushrooming folks might enjoy. These activities include: river tubing, fishing, sand pit volleyball, 9-hole disc golf, and for a fee — horseback riding, wilderness paintball, cliffhanging, laser tag, and navigating along some high ropes. I encourage anyone desiring additional information about Shepard of the Ozarks to check out their website: http://www.sotocamp.com/

Jay Justice, Arkansas Mycological SocietyLink to NAMA website foray page: http://namyco.org/events/NAMA2013/index2013.html